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Contents

Origin

Johnny Lash is travelling in a prairie schooner (covered wagon) with his parents toward a new life in the west. They are attacked by three men dressed as Indians. The men shoot his mother and father, but Johnny, laying beneath his parents' dead bodies, fights back his will to confront the men too soon. He plays possum while he listens to the bandits talk and laugh as they rummage through the wagon looking for valuables. Infuriated, Johnny shoots and kills two of the bandits. The third rides away as Johnny swears to track him down and get the leader of the band.

Guarding his parents graves, Johnny threatens stagecoach driver Pedro Gonzalez with his rifle, telling him to stay away from his parents' graves. Pedro handily disarms the young man with his horsewhip. Johnny tells Pedro the story of the murder of his parents. Taking Johnny under his wing, Pedro trains him to become an expert with a whip. On Johnny's 17th birthday, Pedro gives him a whip and a beautiful black horse for a present. Excited, Johnny names his horse Diablo.

Johnny rides shotgun in the stagecoach for Pedro, protecting the valuable cargo. In town Johnny always listening to hear the laugh of the man who murdered his parents.

A man named Ed runs the stagecoach, managing its cargo. One trip, Ed agrees to allow for a passenger by the name of Smiley Walker, called so because he always laughs. Walker runs the gambling concession in the Last Chance Saloon.

On the trial, Pedro sees Diablo standing on ridge and mentions it to Johnny. Johnny tells him that he's been training Diablo to follow the stagecoach and to come at Johnny's insistent whistle. Bandits come out to hold up the stagecoach and surprise Johnny and Pedro. Johnny prepares to fire at them, but Smiley shoots him from his seat in the stagecoach. The shot grazes the back of Johnny's head. One of the bandits shoots and kills Pedro. Johnny regains semi-consciousness, hearing Smiley laugh, confirming Smiley killed his parents. Smiley plans to return to town and make up a story so he is not connected with the bandits.

Johnny recovers his full facilities a half-hour later after the bandits have left. He whistles for Diablo, and the horse comes to get him. Johnny goes to prepare, donning his costume and mask. He goes to the bandits' hideout, jumping through the window and introducing himself as "The Whip". As The Whip, Johnny soon whips the bandits into submission. He describes himself as an angel of vengeance for Pedro. He tells Smiley he was the boy in the covered wagon when Smiley and his gang killed his parents. He told Smiley he would give him the same as was given to Pedro and his parents.